Raccoon Trapping, Removal, and Damage Repair in the Chattanooga Area

Raccoons are medium-sized, primarily-carnivorous, nocturnal mammals with masked faces and ringed tails. They're very strong, intelligent animals with excellent dexterity in their front paws. They're smart enough to figure out things like how to open gate latches or trash can lids, and nimble enough to actually do those things. They're also excellent climbers, and use their brains, teeth, and paws to get into buildings. That makes it a real challenge to seal raccoons out of a house or building.

In nature, raccoons usually live in hollow trees, caves, and abandoned animal burrows. Their natural diet is primarily animal-based and consists of fish, amphibians, small mammals, birds, insects, gastropods (slugs and snails), and carrion; as well as fruits, seeds, and other plant products.

Raccoons are very adaptable animals, however; and as their native habitat is taken over by humans, they have adapted to living in human-occupied building and eating our leftover food. They can be found in literally any part of a house from the crawl space to the attic, and will eat pretty much anything we throw away. They're a particular nuisance around trash cans and dumpsters.

Raccoons as Nuisance Animals

Raccoons are a serious wildlife nuisance in and around human-occupied areas.

Despite their cute appearance, adult raccoons are decidedly unfriendly animals whose strength and disposition make them able and willing to defend themselves if they feel threatened. Because they're nocturnal animals who make a habit of rummaging through human garbage to look for food, it's very easy to accidentally corner a foraging raccoon. That can be a very dangerous thing. If a raccoon is cornered, it may very well attack.

Raccoons' aggressive personalities can become a real safety risk when they move into seldom-accessed parts of a house like the attic or crawl space. If a household member doesn't know they're in there, they may startle the animal when they enter the area for some reason; and startled raccoons may very well attack. We can help you prevent unpleasant surprises by sealing up your home to keep raccoons out.

Raccoons, like most carnivorous wildlife, also have a fairly high rate of rabies. Rabies is a virus spread mainly in an animal's saliva that is fatal to humans once its symptoms start to appear. If you have any physical contact with a raccoon, you should seek medical help. Even a drop of saliva on a scratch in your skin can be enough to acquire rabies; so if you have any contact at all with a raccoon, it's best to let a doctor decide whether you need prophylactic treatment.

In addition to the health and safety risks they pose, raccoons also make a major mess once they get into a house. In addition to whatever damage they do getting into the house in the first place, once they're inside they tear holes in wallboard, pull down insulation, scratch and tear heating and air-conditioning ducts, pull screens off windows, and contaminate the area with their urine, feces, and parasites. They seem to go out of their way to be destructive.

Raccoon Removal and Exclusion

Raccoons are considered nuisance wildlife, not pests. Accordingly, there are no poisons labeled for raccoon control and there's no such thing as a "raccoon exterminator."Raccoons must be controlled by safe, humane, non-chemical methods such as trapping and removal, followed by sealing up the house or building to prevent "new" raccoons from getting in. This can be a difficult job because raccoons' intelligence, strength, and dexterity give them an edge over most other animals when it comes to breaking into buildings. That's why most raccoon-exclusion attempts by homeowners or handymen fail. Most folks have no idea how resourceful raccoons can be.

Not to worry, though. That's why we're here. Rid-A-Critter is the Southeast's leader in professional raccoon trapping, removal, and exclusion. We will safely remove raccoons from your home and building, repair the damage they caused, and seal up your house so they can't get back in. Better still, we stand behind our work with the best warranty in the business.

Raccoon Control Gallery

Here are some randomly-selected pictures of raccoon-removal work we've done in Chattanooga and elsewhere in our service area.

Please contact us to learn more about our raccoon-removal services in the Chattanooga, Tennessee metropolitan area. We look forward to hearing from you.

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The Chattanooga, Tennessee office of Rid-A-Critter provides raccoon trapping, removal, and damage repair in the Chattanooga, Tennessee Metro Area, including the counties of Hamilton, Marion, and Sequatchie, Tennesee and the cities and towns of Collegedale, Dunlap, East Brainerd, East Ridge, Harrison, Jasper, Lakeview, Middle Valley, Red Bank, Signal Mountain, Soddy-Daisy, and their surrounding areas.

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